GTA home sales in September: 5,040, down 9.0% — the TRREB release in plain words

What happened

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB, the group of real estate agents in Toronto and nearby areas) released its September housing numbers on October 6, 2026. The main message: people who wanted to buy a home chose to wait in September.

• Sales: 5,040. That is 9.0% fewer than September 2025 (5,540).
• New listings (homes newly put up for sale): 16,500, down 14.4% from last September.
• Average selling price: $1,006,409, down 5.1% from last September.
• MLS Home Price Index (HPI) composite benchmark: down 4.7% from last September.
• After removing seasonal effects, sales, new listings and prices were all a little lower than the month before (August).

In charts: the last three Septembers

Comparing the same month removes the seasonal effect, so it is easier to see how the market changed year to year. Below are the last three Septembers. Each chart comes with a table of the same numbers so you can compare them yourself.

The terms in plain words

• Sales: the number of homes sold that month through TRREB’s MLS system (the system agents use to list homes and record sales).
• New listings: the number of homes newly put up for sale that month. When both sales and new listings fall, it means both buyers and sellers are quiet.
• Average price: all sale prices added up and divided by the number of sales. If more expensive homes sell, the average goes up, so it does not mean one home changed by that amount.
• Benchmark price (MLS HPI): an index that tracks the price of a "typical" home with the same features (rooms, size). It is better than the average for seeing the trend.
• Seasonally adjusted: numbers with the usual yearly pattern removed (spring is always busy, winter is always slow). It is used to compare with the month before.

The background TRREB gave

TRREB said people put off decisions because they did not know where the economy, inflation and borrowing costs (mortgage rates) were going. It also pointed to the municipal election on October 26, with housing a big issue for voters.

The board’s chief market analyst said, in short, that many households want to buy but need to feel sure about their jobs and inflation first. The board’s CEO asked governments to cut Toronto’s municipal land transfer tax (a tax you pay when you buy a home) and to stop it spreading to other cities. That is the board’s position, not a decided policy.

What it means for GTA buyers, sellers and renters (explanation)

This explains how to read the numbers. It is not advice to buy or sell.

• Buyers: it was a month with fewer sales and prices below last year. But the average price varies a lot by home type and area, so look at the numbers for the neighbourhood you care about.
• Sellers: new listings fell 14.4%, so there were fewer competing homes. Still, buyers were careful, so pricing is usually based on recent nearby sales (a comparative market analysis).
• Renters: this release is about the resale market. Rent numbers are reported separately, so you cannot read rent going up or down from these figures.

What to watch next

TRREB publishes the previous month’s numbers early each month in its "Market Watch" report. Check the official schedule on the TRREB website for the October release date. The Bank of Canada’s rate announcement dates, which affect mortgage rates, are on the Bank’s official schedule. This article does not predict the market.